In total, 16 of the 81 scripts featured on the 2015 Black List, or 20%, were written or co-written by women. The list included Julia Cox’s “Do No Harm,” which has now been acquired by Paramount Pictures. According to Deadline, Cox’s script will be produced by Joel Silver (“Veronica Mars,” “Die Hard”) and Ethan Erwin (“The Nice Guys”) with Sarah Meyer (“Orphan”) overseeing for Silver Pictures.
The logline for “Do No Harm” reads as follows: “An ambitious surgeon’s life takes a dangerous turn when she indulges in an affair with a doctor whose god complex challenges her own.” This battle of egos involves sex, and possibly violence: “Do No Harm” sounds like a suspenseful erotic thriller with good potential at the box office. Consider the success of last year’s “The Boy Next Door.” The film, starring Jennifer Lopez as a woman who gets romantically involved with her much younger, obsessive neighbor, grossed over $52 million on a budget of $4 million.
Deadline reports that Cox “is separately developing an untitled feature with The Firm and ‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’ director Gabriele Muccino and her other Black List script, ‘The Takeaway,’ is set up with Clement Miserez’s Radar Films with Leila Smith attached to produce.” Cox previously worked as a writer’s assistant to Jason Katims, the creator of “Parenthood.”
